Bruno sat on the empty stool Cinder left behind when he said he was going out to make the most of his luck and absentmindedly looked at the locket. He gently stroked the engraving with his thumb.
Had he been wrong? Was it a mistake to leave as he had done? Had he misinterpreted how she felt?
Bruno felt that the answer to all those questions was almost certainly yes. But a stubborn grain of doubt lingered in his mind.
Then why had this necklace ended up at the bottom of the Mountain? Wouldn't she have thrown it away back then? Hadn't it just slowly drifted down the Mountain, never finding a new owner?
It was just a coincidence that it had ended up in his hands again.
Cinder was a newbie, but he was lucky and pretty decent. Would another hunter have succeeded in taking down a deer from higher up the mountain? If they had, would they have shown him the necklace or haggled a bunch? Would he have questioned them so hard on how they took it down?
Probably not. He would have thanked them for the deer, offered them a good price, and then moved on with his life while the hunter sold the necklace somewhere more logical. When that failed since the necklace was as good as cursed, the necklace would either get thrown away or destroyed, without Bruno ever seeing it.
What could the current situation be if not the result of a series of coincidences? Fate?
Bruno scoffed. He wasn't a big believer in fate. He knew there were bigger forces that he couldn't understand or explain out there. But why would they involve themselves in his necklace?
Bruno grabbed the necklace's chain with both hands like he was about to put it on before sighing and bundling it up. He stood up and closed the store to focus on butchering the deer. His mind was a mess, dragging up pieces of the past. He needed to clear it by working.
In contrast to his disorderly mind, Bruno's hands moved with precision and decisiveness as his cleaver cut through the deer. He worked so efficiently that he was finished before even Tom had the chance to return.
He ended up looking at the necklace again. Every time he stroked the engraving, it was like he could hear her lovely voice whispering in his ear, saying,
'Pick up your Stone again, Bruno. I'm waiting for you.'
He was just imagining it, he was sure. There was no way she was waiting him for. The only thing she could possibly be waiting for was a chance to slap him for leaving without saying anything.
Bruno looked up and out of the windows to his shop. He could see the Mountain in the distance.
She was up there somewhere. He rubbed his chin.
'Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to see her one last time.' Bruno sighed and shook his head.
That was impossible. Even if he knew where to look, there was no way he could reach her. Knowing her, there was no way she would have stopped climbing just because he did. She would have continued ever upward.
Who knows how high she's reached?
Bruno stuffed away the necklace, firmly giving up on the idea of going up the Mountain to look for her just in time for Tom to burst through the door. He took one look at the blue and grey Bruno. He narrowed his eyes.
"Nothing's happened to the deer, right?" He asked worriedly. That was the only reason he could think of for Bruno being down in the dumps.
"No, this is uh—"
"Good. Quick. Give me two good pieces of tenderloin before the others get here."
"Not so fast, Tom! We already agreed last time that the tenderloin is mine!" Another heavyset cook with little enough hair that he didn't need a cap burst through the door and shouted at Tom.
"Wilkes…!" Tom glared at the new arrival.
"Oh, boys~" Another cook entered the shop with a sultry voice. "How about letting me take care of the tender…loin…This time?" She asked, dragging out the word seductively while extending one hand up the doorframe.
"'Shut up, hag!'" The two men shouted at the same time before turning to Bruno with desperate eyes.
Bruno shrugged.
"The early bird—"
"Gets the worm, so I get the deer, right?!" Wilkes said hopefully.
"No. Tom gets a free pass for the first round of coin tossing unless someone else comes within three seconds."
They all looked at the door. No one came. So far, it was only the three cooks. A heavyset man with a cloth wrapped around the top of his head, a heavyset man with no hair on his head, and an older woman with her hair tied neatly behind her head.
Tom cheered silently as Wilkes pulled out a Token. He handed it to Bruno.
Bruno took it with a nod.
"Call when it's started to fall."
He threw the Token into the air.
"Heads!"
"Tails!"
Bruno caught the Token and smacked it against the back of his hand, revealing the image of Sisyphus rolling his stone up the mountain.
"Margret," Bruno called out the winner of the first round. He then looked at Margret and Tom.
"Ready?"
"'Just toss already!'" The two shouted in sync.
Once again, he tossed it into the air.
"Heads!"
"Dammit—Tails."
Once again, the image of Sisyphus.
"Margret." Once again, Margret's victory. Tom joined Wilkes on the floor in defeat as Margret celebrated her victory with a little dance while Bruno fetched the packets he had prepared with the different cuts of meat.
He handed a nicely wrapped one to Margret while the others got plainly wrapped ones.
"...That's not fair, Bruno," Margret said. "Now everyone will know I got it." She shot him a sharp look.
Bruno shrugged.
"If you have no trouble winning, you should have no trouble handling the consequences of winning," he said, fully aware of what it meant.
"You won't get any if everyone comes to my place."
"I don't need it."
The eyes of the three cooks widened as they looked at Bruno.
"You don't mean…!"
Bruno smiled with his arms crossed.
"I always get a share, you know?"
The three cooks glared at Bruno while seriously considering changing their professions until the rest of the village's cooks finally caught up and snagged what was left of the deer.